Hello, dear friends! I hope you’re enjoying the bookish delight of BEA from the comfort of your own homes. I’m fortunate enough to attend BEA each year to meet with our publisher clients, and say hello to the many bloggers, librarians, reviewers, and other friends who support NetGalley. This year, I’ll also be speaking on a panel at the BEA Bloggers Conference on Demystifying the Book Blogger & Publisher Relationship. But our love of books and bloggers doesn’t stop at the doors to the Javits center, and we know you don’t have to be at BEA to feel the buzz.

NetGalley has always been a friend to bloggers—it’s been our pleasure to work with you for the past 4 years as the book blogging community has flourished, and we thank you for your enthusiasm for the site. It’s so rewarding for us and for our publishers to see blogger-led contests and read-a-thons like “NetGalley Month” and the year-long “NetGalley Reading Challenge.” For NetGalley and bloggers alike, we’re sure the best is yet to come, and we can’t wait to continue the journey with you!

NetGalley is all about the newest books—helping connect publishers with buzz-makers (like you) to launch titles faster and further. This year for BEA, we’re working with some great industry partners to help bring the galleys to you, so read on.

BEA BUZZ BOOKS: EXCERPTS FROM OVER 30 TOP FALL 2012 TITLES from Publishers Lunch. We were thrilled to join with Publishers Lunch for this cool promotion, which they’re calling “BEA in an eBook.” The best part: it’s available to READ NOW on NetGalley—instant access, no requesting, no waiting.

BEA is all about discovering the fall season’s big books, from new voices to breakout authors, hot nonfiction and beloved bestsellers. Publishers Lunch has packed a convention’s worth of exclusive excerpts from top Fall titles featured at the BookExpo America convention into a single volume. Enjoy new works from Junot Díaz, Mark Helprin, Rhoda Janzen, Barbara Kingsolver, Jessica Khoury, Dennis Lehane, J.R. Moehringer, Neil Young, and many others in the free BEA BUZZ BOOKS. In addition to the excerpts, there’s even a round-up from Publishers Lunch of over 100 Fall books of note of all kinds to have on your radar.

PLUS: Go beyond the excerpts with NetGalley

After most excerpts, look for a link to READ or REQUEST the full galley on NetGalley. Publishers can choose how to provide access to the full galley, so you’ll see two kinds of links—either a link to request the title on NetGalley, or a widget link for approved access as soon as you login. Enjoy!

Barbara Hoffert’s BEA Galley & Signing Guide 2012 for Library Journal. It’s being called “the librarian’s essential BEA 2012 navigation tool” and we have to agree! Barbara’s been tracking some of the show’s top titles, from large publishers and small. Plus, you’ll see embedded icons that will guide you to NetGalley—so you can request a copy even if you won’t be at the show.

Feed Your Reader with NetGalley all year long!

Although BEA is an especially busy time, we’re working everyday adding new titles from publishers for you to request and review. Browse our catalog anytime, and keep updated on what’s happening at NetGalley with our newsletters (spoiler alert: a facelift and lots of big changes are coming—stay tuned!).

Speaking of which, here are two of our recent BEA-related newsletters:

If you’re already a NetGalley member, you probably got our email last week about our BEA plans. We have an exciting update, so I wanted to share the details of our promotion with all you “follow the readers.”

“LIKE” NETGALLEY AT BEA & ENTER TO WIN A READING DEVICE!

By BEA, NetGalley will have over 26,000registered members and 100 publishers–which we think is something to celebrate! Our theme for NetGalley at BEA will be “COUNT ME IN” and we hope you’ll join the fun.

We’re bringing our Facebook Wall to life by asking all of you to come by booth #3718 to “like” our booth wall using the cute “I heart NG” sticker you see here and below.

We bookish folks currently live in a funny and expanding universe. Funny and expanding because much of it, for many of us largely takes place virtually. Well, #followreader is one prime example. And, chatting about books and publishing outside of #followreader with fellow Twitter bookish tweeps is another. As are: all the groups and fan sites and friends of a bookish feather we hang out with on Facebook. Did I forget to mention book blogs? Perish the thought! Bookish blogs are a big virtual stop for many of us.

Added to this is the increasingly (again, for many – not all – of us), digital nature of reading itself. Ebooks and ibooks and book apps and whatever will electronic reading gizmo or format will come out in the seconds it takes me to finish typing this sentence — many things about the lit life have gone virtual.

So, it’s pretty fabulous to consider the flip side of all this online activity — it can lead to some wonderful real world interactions with real world books. Consider if you will: I’m in Cambridge a few weeks ago. I casually tweet about being in Cambridge. Not moments later, my Twitter buddy @ConMartin (whom I have never met in real life), direct messages me back, and asks if I’d like to meet for coffee. REALLY meet. For REAL coffee. Well, how cool is that? Long story short, we did meet (real coffee was nixed in favor of real frosty adult beverages). And Constance gave me one of the best tours of Harvard Yard and Harvard BOOKSTORE (definitely worth a visit) that anyone could ever hope for.

@conmartin + @katmeyer meet IRL

In addition, we have a really great conversation, and I learn more about Constance’s own love of books — real booky books– and “in real life” book clubs. I, on the other hand, was able to impart to her some of the reasons I’m crazy about e-reading opportunities and online reading communities.

This is but one example of a bonding with virtual book buddy in the physical plane — another being, just last night I got to meet @susanmpls for the first time in real life for a real dinner at a real restaurant. (more accurately: a really fattening and delicious dinner at a really fabulous Italian restaurant). We talked a lot. A LOT. Almost entirely about books and publishing, but also about chocolate, and family, and – come to think of it, it was mostly about books and publishing.

Begs the question, if virtual relationships can manifest in the real world, what of the connection between physical books and ebooks? I’m not one of those alarmists (I use the term with a tiny grain of salt – please do not take offense all you alarmists, you) who worry that the paper book will be obliterated from the planet. I think paper and plastic will co-exist nicely for as long as we flesh and blood readers remain more real than virtual. But, I have also been running into a lot of cool things happening with booky books lately that make me more and more excited about the book as a real life object. One is visual search, which is a technology that allows the physical to be married to the virtual via smart phones ( QR codes for example, only, visual search ot less bar code-y and a lot more seamlessly integrated into your day to day life).

I’m working on a post over at my day job (Tools of Change) that will offer a glimpse into just how cool this technology is, and how rapidly it’s evolving. So, go over there and check it out tomorrow. (Fingers crossed it will be up tomorrow — I swear, Jamey!).

I’ve also run into some booky-bookish touchstones lately that while are not in the least bit high-tech, do a fabulous job of blurring the lines of what a book is and what the physical book as object means to us as flesh and blood readers. Another story for you: Last month I’m frantically running around BookExpo America, and I have the good fortune of meeting up with the calm, cool and collected Nick Ruffilo of BookSwim.com. We catch up (in real life, for a change) — Nick telling me some of the very interesting things that BookSwim has in store in the near future, and before parting ways, we decide to do the proper IRL thing and exchange real papery business cards. In my usual uncool, uncalm, uncollected manner, I fumble through the black hole that is my purse, looking for one undamaged and mostly legible business card. Nick, on the other hand, reaches calmly into his messenger bag and pulls out an old, leather-bound book:

Nick's book

How odd, you might think – as did I.

But, Nick is full of surprises. Turns out his book is no mere book. His book hides many secrets.

It’s interesting how the virtual and the real worlds of books and the bookish tend to collide. Interesting in a good way, I think.

p.s. – Check out Nick’s etsy store. He creates his secret compartment books on request. I might have gone and gotten one. And I might love it to death and highly recommend getting one yourself, if you’re so inclined.

It’s almost that time, when bookish folk flock to the largest publishing event in North America: BookExpo America (BEA)/ Twitter @BookExpoAmerica. This year BEA is at the Jacob K. Javits Center in NYC Tuesday, May 25 – Thursday, May 27. NetGalley will be at BEA, so stop by and say hello — we’re part of the Firebrand Technologies booth #3905.

We’ve got a fun way for you to get a sneak peek at new books! See below for our NetGalley BEA Buzz Schedule (taking place all day Wed and Thurs). We’ll demo a new title on NetGalley, show you how to get it on your favorite e-reader, and “pitch” the book itself so you can see where all the buzz begins. Check out which titles publicists have selected as potential breakout releases!

The best part is if you watch our demo, you’ll be among the first to view the galley on NetGalley after the show — with an invite from the publisher to download the galley and read it in full. Plus, select titles are available to request on NetGalley NOW if you’d like to get a jump-start on your reading!

It’s been three weeks since Book Expo, and the trade show is a fading memory. My feet feel fresh, I’ve caught up on my sleep, and I’m back on top of my work. But that also means it’s time to refer back to the little memo I wrote to myself in the middle of a restless night after BEA, about what to do differently after the show.

1) Focus and specialize

The reign of publishing’s great generalists is winding down: it’s all about niche, now. It’s time to bring one’s most valuable skills into clear focus, and choose key areas in which to specialize. For me, that means focusing on new ways to connect readers and writers in multiple formats, with the help of clear communication and an inclusive, democratic ethos.

2) Keep a “stop doing” list

It’s easy to pile up stuff to do, but not so easy to let go of what’s not working. Here’s what’s on my list:

Stop reflexively saying “yes.” If I can’t get out of it, say “let me sleep on it.”

Stop assuming I’m the only one who can get it done. Can I delegate it? If not, does it really need to happen?

Stop being a perfectionist – just get the idea across and keep moving. A good idea will take on a life of its own.

3) Listen to the pain

In the last few years, I’ve supported my dad through a terminal illness, and had more than my usual share of colds, aches and pains. I find that when I let go of my resistance and really listen to the pain, I open myself to rich and unexpected insights that point me in inspiring new directions. Why wouldn’t this technique also work with an ailing industry?

4) Keep the big picture and the little picture in balance

The day-to-day details are as absorbing and relentless as ever, but that doesn’t change the fact that the old model isn’t working as well, and the new model doesn’t exist yet. Experimentation is key and so is making time to stay in touch with a variety of viewpoints. But that doesn’t mean the details should get any less than they’re due.

5) Get outside the bubble

This is a tough one, but every day I aspire to step outside my comfort zone and keep an ear open for distant signals – by reading a blog in another industry; talking to a neighbor, teenager or even a total stranger about books or the Internet; or eating something totally new for lunch.

My Book Expo hangover has lasted longer than usual this year, maybe because I crammed four days of meetings into two and, after 10 years of faithful attendance, took Saturday and Sunday off to go to my 20th college reunion. The two events have pushed me to reflect on the past, present and future more intensely than usual, and it’s taken a little while to get my feet back on the ground.

For me, BEA’s bookends were Mike Shatzkin’s talk, Stay Ahead of the Shift: What Product-Centric Publishers Can Do to Flourish in a Community-Centric World, and the CEO Roundtable led by Tina Brown and Harry Evans. While Shatzkin reviewed the considerable changes of the last twenty years and daringly forecasted those of the next twenty, the CEO panel was unhappily mired in the present. Shatzkin fluently played the role of a visionary with Einstein-like hair, pointing out challenges and opportunities with equal verve, but the CEOs were more like grim container ship captains in choppy seas, fastening their attention on e-book pricing, book promotion on You Tube and other threatening icebergs, with all hatches battened.

Shatzkin’s big takeaway was that we are in the twilight of “the good old days,” and entering transitional decades when costs will rise and revenues decline as publishers support inefficient old models and experiment with digital ones that will require many iterations and years to mature. The big takeaway from the CEOs was that it’s just about all they can do to flog the old model: “The Today Show is not as effective as it used to be—and the Internet has not replaced it,” said Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy, who is looking to front-of-bookstore displays to jumpstart sales, even though the recession has markedly reduced store traffic and most browsers start their book searches on the Internet.

Now, to be fair, everyone made generalizations with enough hot air in them to steam up our proverbial glasses. Shatzkin is also an independent consultant who doesn’t have nearly as much at stake from day to day as these venerable publishers. And although both sessions took place (at different times) in the same large conference room at Javits Center, Shatzkin’s talk drew about a third of the audience that the standing-room-only CEO panel did, with fewer recognizable faces in attendance.

I was left with a persistent sense of whiplash as I tried to integrate Shatzkin’s sensible talk about the importance of niche-focused “vertical integration” (e.g. not only creating and distributing content in all formats, but fostering dedicated online communities through content aggregation and curation) with the CEOs’ resolutely traditional view of their role in creating, manufacturing and distributing books in the physical world.

“How are we going to get from resentment about the unsustainable present to a more workable future?” I kept wondering while navigating the crowds between conference rooms. In every panel, everyone seemed on a different wavelength. Making sense of it all is clearly a big job for as many bright minds as the industry can muster.

Some people, particularly unemployed publishing veterans, are very motivated to start building bridges. But we will also need a whole lot more young, rank-and-file publishing people to attend these forward-looking programs. I’m talking about the 20- and 30-somethings in editorial, publicity, online marketing and sales, as well as in online and bricks-and-mortar bookselling. Though many are on the front lines of the publishing process, they can also be blinkered by their limited roles in the publishing assembly line, and too rarely encouraged by higher-ups to seek out the big picture. But we need their engagement, vision and energy more than ever to make the transition to the future.

(Yes, when I graduated from college 20 years ago, I was one of them – an often blinkered editorial assistant working my way up the ladder at HarperCollins, later moving to Avon Books as an editor, then Publishers Weekly as a writer and editor. But to me, today’s rank and file are luckier than we were, back in the industry’s more stable days, because they have a bigger opportunity now to put their stamp on it.)

If I have one fervent hope for BEA next year, it’s not so much that consumers will be invited to attend on the last day, as Richard Nash and Michael Cairns have suggested, but that every publishing person in their 20s and 30s has the chance to attend the educational programming and become part of the online and offline conversation about how to get from the present to the future we will create together. Here’s hoping that moving the conference to mid-week next will only make it more possible.

I’m just back from BookExpo America. “Just back” being a bit of an exaggeration, since I got back to my little desert home on Monday night, but have been in “BEA Hangover” state until this morning. Was it worth it? Well, yes and no. In my bookish opinion, this year’s BEA was pretty much business as usual in many respects, but there were a few very fantastic events and many small moments that made this year one to remember, and all of them were about connecting in real life with some of the really great people that make being in the book world really wonderful.

The truly remarkable Mr. Fran Toolan summed up the biggest BEA highlight in the quote above. Booth #4077, the Firebrand/NetGalley Booth was THE PLACE TO BE on the show floor this year. Fran’s stroke of genius in hosting a bevy of book bloggers at the booth paid off in spades. All weekend long, enthusiastic bloggers “signed” (no really, they signed these fantastic book blogger trading cards that @PermanentPaper – aka Melissa Klug of Glatfelter Paper designed and printed) while a large flatscreen displayed tweetdeck streaming the action live on Twitter.

Let’s just say, the book blogger signings at the NetGalley booth were a huge hit. Masses of people gravitated to the booth, and for those who were unfamiliar with book blogging and bloggers prior to being pulled into the 4077th’s orbit, they didn’t stay unfamiliar for long. I’d go so far as to say lots of conference goers came away from the booth huge fans of book blogging and some even told me they were going to take up blogging themselves.

GalleyCat did a shoutout (complete with video) about it, and Verso’sDenise Berthiaume brought her video crew over to interview a few of the bloggers too. So, that’s success. To quote another esteemed bookish person who knows about such things, one Mr. Richard Nash, “Fran did a very rare thing. He created an event on the floor. It was a gathering place.”

BEAtweetup

According to all (or all I’ve heard) accounts, the BEAtweetup was also a huge success and I’m pretty sure both sponsors and guests (all upwards of 500 of them) left happy. As an organizer of said event, I was pleased as punch that it even got a good “review” from Miss Carolyn Kellog (@paperhaus to you Tweeple) in the LA Times’ Jacket Copy. And, aside from being thrilled that all went off without any noticeable hitches, I’m really glad it’s over and am planning to have a t-shirt made: “I survived the BEAtweetup of 2009.” So, thank you all you sponsors, and thank you all you organizers, and thank you all you guests who attended. I think the People’s Party needs to be a tradition. (see you next year – who wants to organize?)

But What of the Books, and Readers, and Authors, and Whatnot?

Book: The Sequel

Oh, right. The books. Celebrating and SELLING the books. The real reason all of us were converging upon the Javits Center. Well, there were some books. There were not as many physical galleys as in previous years (though the hot ones were in big demand — lots of people were seeking copies of Suzanne Collins’ follow-up to Hunger Games, Catching Fire), but there was a lot of action regarding various forms of new-fangled digital book stuff: digital galleys (NetGalley had a number of new publishers sign up for their e-galley program, and Harper Collins began a trial use of Symptio e-galleys); there were some audio “galley” downloads; Perseus Book Group crowd-sourced and pumped out their flash-fried Book: The Sequel in various formats (note: this book rocks, and you can request an egalley of it at NetGalley by searching “sequel” in the catalog at netgalley.com); the Espresso digital book machine was going full force; and Above the Treeline demo’d their very cool digital catalog, Edelweiss.

As for authors and celebrating books, one particular event really warmed my heart–and made me worry about the future: the ABA’s “Celebration of Bookselling/Indies Choice Book Awards.” I’m still not sure why the good people of the ABA were kind enough to invite me (thank you, Mark Nichols), but boy was I happy to be there. Esteemed author after esteemed author (many from the Indie Next List) got up (or showed up via video) to thank the indie booksellers who have very much been responsible for making the esteemed authors esteemed.

Sherman Alexie, Suzanne Collins, Jon Scieszka, Kristin Cashore, Mo Willems, and on and on…what a cool thing to see people we worship — worshipping booksellers. (BTW: Sarah Vowell’s video “thank you” for Wordy Shipmates being voted “best conversation starter,” was hilarious and hopefully will show up on YouTube).

What worries me…more of the same I’ve expressed here before. If our beloved and endangered indie booksellers can no longer work as indie booksellers, who is going to help us find the Sherman Alexies and Suzanne Collinses, etc.?

High Anxiety

My sense of worry over whence the indies shall go, is small potatoes compared to the practically palpable vibe of anxiety many publishers were putting out in the conference center. That’s the thing. With all the hope and new ideas and energy of change, the worry and angst from some of the bigger publishers was a real drag. In spite of there being some great educational sessions with lots of ideas for making the book world a better place in leaner times, the people who really needed to be in those sessions were all in their booths lamenting the passing of the golden era.

Whatever.

So, those are my first impressions of BEA09. No doubt many of you who were also there have some impressions of your own to offer. And, as always, Follow the Reader would love to hear them!

About

Follow the Reader is the blog of NetGalley (www.netgalley.com), a place where professional readers — reviewers, media, bloggers, journalists, librarians, booksellers and educators — can read and request digital galleys they want to review.